a difficult word to trace, in part because it was taboo to the editors of the original OED when the "F" volume was compiled, 1893-97. Written form only attested from early 16c. OED 2nd edition cites 1503, in the form
fukkit; earliest appearance of current spelling is 1535 -- "Bischops ... may fuck thair fill and be vnmaryit" [Sir David Lyndesay,
"Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estaits"], but presumably it is a much more ancient word than that, simply one that wasn't likely to be written in the kind of texts that have survived from O.E. and M.E. Buck cites proper name
John le Fucker from 1278. The word apparently is hinted at in a scurrilous 15c. poem, titled
"Flen flyys," written in bastard L. and M.E. The relevant line reads:
Non sunt in celi
quia fuccant uuiuys of heli
"They [the monks] are not in heaven because they fuck the wives of Ely."
Fuccant is pseudo-L., and in the original it is written in cipher. The earliest examples of the word otherwise are from Scottish, which suggests a Scandinavian origin, perhaps from a word akin to Norw. dial.
fukka "copulate," or Swedish dial.
focka "copulate, strike, push," and
fock "penis." Another theory traces it to M.E.
fkye, fike "move restlessly, fidget," which also meant "dally, flirt," and probably is from a general North Sea Gmc. word, cf. M.Du.
fokken, Ger.
ficken "fuck," earlier "make quick movements to and fro, flick," still earlier "itch, scratch;" the vulgar sense attested from 16c. This would parallel in sense the usual M.E. slang term for "have sexual intercourse,"
swive, from O.E.
swifan "to move lightly over, sweep" (see
swivel). Chronology and phonology rule out Shipley's attempt to derive it from M.E.
firk "to press hard, beat." As a noun, it dates from 1680. French
foutre and Italian
fottere look like the Eng. word but are unrelated, derived rather from L.
futuere, which is perhaps from PIE base
*bhau(t)- "knock, strike off," extended via a figurative use "from the sexual application of violent action" [Shipley; cf. the sexual slang use of
bang, etc.]. Popular and Internet derivations from acronyms (and the "pluck yew" fable) are merely
ingenious trifling. The O.E. word was
hæman, from
ham "dwelling, home," with a sense of "take home, co-habit."
Fuck was outlawed in print in England (by the Obscene Publications Act, 1857) and the U.S. (by the Comstock Act, 1873). The word may have been shunned in print, but it continued in conversation, especially among soldiers during WWI.
"It became so common that an effective way for the soldier to express this emotion was to omit this word. Thus if a sergeant sai
[fuhk] 
Vulgar.
let's go home. [Vulgar slang; 1920s]